News shorts
Compiled by Amanda McCuaig
Residence students holding a blanket drive
A blanket and warm clothing drive is being held by residence students who wish to help those living in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
With cold winter months ahead, the group of students would like to lend support to those in need by collecting donations of winter hats, sweaters, shoes, jackets, blankets, socks, and gloves.
After being introduced by their Rez Life supervisor to a group called Watari, that works with people from the Downtown Eastside, SFU residence students wanted to find a way to help. From there, they set up a plan with the 10th Street Alliance Church located on Tenth and Ontario.
"A blanket drive seems like an easy way to help without having to require too much commitment from students," said Leah Taylor, a residence CA. For Taylor, the idea seemed like a great way to give students the opportunity to chose between just donating, or helping with the actual distribution as well.
"[Tenth Street Alliance Church] hands out food every Monday at 7:00 am," explained Taylor. "They say that the lineups start every morning at 5:30, so we're going to hand out warm clothes to people who are already in the lineup. And to people as well in doors we'll hand out blankets for later on that evening."
Donations are currently being collected at the Residence and Housing Centre. The deadline for donations is November 7. For more information, or if you're interested in helping with distribution, you can contact Leah Taylor at lkt@sfu.ca.
Business needs to become more responsible: Stephen Owen
Businesses must find the point between self-interest and altruism and push it, said Senator Stephen Owen, minister of Western economic diversification, in a lecture last Tuesday.
Owen was invited by SFU NetImpact to speak to students last Tuesday evening about his experiences and lessons learned over the past two decades in various sustainability roles. Although he covered what a friend of his later described as a "smorgasbord of information" over the hour that he spoke, he discussed in-depth both the importance of citizen engagement and the power of business in playing an active role in positive sustainability changes.
"What's really happening is that [businesses are] getting into a dedication with good policy, the public good, and with sustainable business," he said to the audience in the Fletcher Challenge Theatre. "This is a very very powerful advance in modern society."
"I call this the fertile intersect. If you can find an intersect of self-interest and altruism, and push it, it's probably the most powerful point in the order of social affairs. Business is really coming around to that," he added.
He also emphasised that citizen engagement in governance is critical.
"We've got to get those citizens involved, and you're not going to get them involved simply by sending people like me off to make decisions," he said.
In complex issues such as the environmental, good governance is about engaging different sectors of the public. Owen said that by capturing the moderates of any issue and building a consensus, "you get a curious dynamic that happens."
"I call it the paradox of noise," he elaborated. "As you build greater consensus among all of the sectors of the dispute, outwards to the extremes, you get even across the divisions in society; you get the extremes being present. And you actually get them making a lot of noise, in our society and in our disputes. And the media pays a lot of attention."